Category 1: Building a Customer-Focused Culture
MADELEINE FRIEDMAN
Program Manager
Occupational and Environmental Health, Surveillance, and Readiness (OEHSR) Program Management Office (PMO)
Defense Health Agency
U.S. Department of War
Madeleine Friedman is being honored in Category 1: Building a Customer Focused Culture for transforming how the Defense Health Agency's Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH) programs serve Service Members, Veterans, and healthcare providers. By embedding customer needs into every stage of system development, she established a culture where technology decisions are guided by one principle: improving the experience and outcomes of the people who rely on these critical health systems. Her leadership has redefined how environmental health information is collected, shared, and used across the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Ms. Friedman led the creation of a unified Program Management Office overseeing seven programs while ensuring end users were actively involved throughout the development process. She championed the launch of Personal ILER, empowering Service Members to document their own exposure histories, and replaced complex industrial hygiene data with plain-language exposure summaries that clinicians and Veterans can easily understand. She also prioritized accessibility improvements, automated time-consuming manual processes for VA claims reviewers and clinical staff, and established cross-functional working groups that brought providers, military personnel, and other end users into product development from the outset. By emphasizing usability, training, and continuous customer feedback, she ensured that new capabilities addressed real-world needs rather than technical assumptions.
The impact of Ms. Friedman's leadership has been substantial. More than 60,000 daily users across the DoD and VA now benefit from systems that are simpler, more accessible, and more effective. Automated reporting has reduced login burdens for VA claims reviewers by more than 50%, accelerating disability determinations for Veterans, while user-centered design has reduced help desk requests by over 60%. Through her commitment to customer-focused innovation, Ms. Friedman has improved healthcare delivery, strengthened support for Veterans and Service Members, and created a lasting culture where every technology investment is measured by its value to the people it serves.